Beauty & lifestyle

Month: February 2015

I haven’t done a foto friday post in ages! Recently when I went home and was clearing my stuff I came across the first blush I got…the one that started a crazy blush addiction 🙂 The very first blush I bought was a Clinique one in the shade enchanted bronze. I am not sure if it is still available but in case it is let me assure you that its awesome!!

First Blush crush 😀

It does have some shimmer but it won’t make you look like a disco ball. I remember this blush giving just the right hint of peachy warmth to my skin and looking very natural.

I have not used this blush since rediscovering it since it is easily 7 to 8 years old. I am now on a mission to find a dupe..any suggestions?

Since the last couple of posts on the blog have been makeup related I thought I’d review a body lotion I’ve been testing out for the last 2 months for a change! I was excited to receive a full size of the Vaseline Intensive care advanced repair lotion from Influenster just as winter was rolling in. After using this for 2 months I am not really as thrilled as I was when I first got it 😐

Vaseline Intensive Care Advanced Repair Lotion

Lets first discuss the good stuff..Its fragrance free! I generally like to use mildly fragranced body products but I know lots of people are sensitive to fragrances in their personal care products so its great to see that this is fragrance free. I hear that this is a reformulated version of their original fragrance free intensive care line which I never tried ( I was bought up in a family that loved Nivea more than anything!)

The lotion claims to be non greasy and it isn’t, BUT it doesn’t sink into your skin either! When you apply this on your skin, it feels powdery smooth and silicony ..and tacky! Basically this stuff just adds a layer to your skin and sits on top and I don’t like body lotions to function that way! In fact, I am almost tempted to try this as a primer for foundation due to the smooth layer it forms on top of the skin!! 😛

I have extremely dry skin..especially in the colder months and this did not do any intensive healing or repairing for sure! It only helped prevent further drying for the time period it formed the layer ( the layer kind of wears off after a few hours). A look at the ingredient list also confirm there is no healing or skin repair ingredients in the lotion.

Ingredient List

It would have been great to see some Shea butter or Vitamin E in there instead of the very basic age old mix of glycerin, mineral oil and petrolatum! At least then, the repair and intensive care claims stand a chance!

My final grouse with this product is the packaging. Its so difficult to squeeze the product out of the bottle! You need to use both hands and this was the case from day 1 when the bottle was full.

There are so many basic drugstore body lotions which performs equally or better. So its okay if you skip this one, you aren’t missing anything phenomenal!

I have recently fallen in love with Physicians formula! I have no idea what took me so long to try some of their products! Better late than never as they say 😉 Now, if you’ve been reading my blog for a while you know I am sucker for cute packaging and that was maybe the main reason I picked up the Happy Booster blush when I saw it heavily discounted at my drugstore 😀

Physicians Formula Happy Booster blush in Pink

It looks so pretty in the pan. Don’t judge me..but I bought this blush just for the design..I didn’t care if it functioned as a blush or not! But when I put it to the test it did pass with flying colors!

The heart design! Sooo pretty 🙂

So, the pan contains a good amount of product (7g) and although when you sniff the blush it has a slight floral smell, it is not detectable once you apply it onto your skin. So it is still worth checking out even if you generally avoid fragranced makeup products.

Performance wise..I love it!! It gives the most beautiful soft, lit from within, winter flushed cheeks kinda glow to the cheeks 🙂 There is barely any sparkle or shimmer..just a lovely satin sheen on the cheeks. The blush has awesome staying power ..I didn’t notice any fading after 9 hours of wear.

It imparts a soft pink color on my medium color skin. This blush will look beautiful on fair to medium skin tones. Deeper skin tones might have some difficulty trying to make this color show..however they can make it work as a highlighter.

A concentrated finger swatch and a blended swatch

The only major grouse I have with this product is the bulky packaging. It comes with a brush and mirror housed in a compartment below the blush. I personally didn’t like the brush, it was scratchy and not that great at applying blush.

I have tried to buildup the color of this blush on my cheeks but it ended up looking shimmery..so balance is key! Just stick to the initial application and you’ll get a natural looking glow 🙂

The blush claims to have happiness ingredients (I no longer have the outer packaging to check what the magical ingredient is!) which I feel is all a marketing gimmick..but yeah if looking at pretty hearts while you apply your blush makes you happy then I guess they are right 😀

So the month of December was great not just to grab some high end stuff but drugstore as well! I was lucky to find some great things I’ve been wanting to try for a while heavily discounted at my local CVS. I am not much of a lipgloss person so I usually do not gravitate towards them. I love the brand Milani and almost everything I have tried from them have been great so when I saw their brilliant shine gloss at a discount I thought why not try it out. The color selection for these glosses is impressive! I picked up only one and that was in the shade Ravish Raspberry 06.

Milani Brilliant Shine Gloss

First off..I love love this color! 🙂 Its a nice muted fuchsia pink. The gloss is not full on opaque on the lips but instead gives a very nice translucent color which is high shine like the name suggests! The texture of the gloss is great too..its thick but not goopy. On the lips it does have a slight tact but I would not call this gloss sticky. It feels really comfortable on the lips and is not drying at all. Overall, i think they have nailed it formula and finish wise 😀

I f you smell the gloss in the tube it does have a faint vanilla scent which is not overpowering and which is barely detected once you apply it on your lips. I am not very fond of the paddle brush type applicator that comes with this gloss. I feel it picks up too much product so you might have to watch out for that and wipe off some excess product from it before applying it on your lips.

The paddle type applicator

Overall I really this gloss..the formula, the feeling on the lips, the finish , the color..and if your wondering how this shade swatches here you go 😉

Ravish Raspberry Swatch!

If you’ve fallen in love with this shade as much I have..then I ‘d say go for it! The other shades in this collection are great too..I might be picking some up the next time I come across a Milani display (hopefully they don’t plan on discontinuing these..they are quite fabulous!).

Its been ages since I last posted on my blog! The second half of December and the whole of January was hectic with the holidays, travel, moving houses etc Now that I am back stay tuned for some fun stuff coming your way from the blog starting tomorrow 🙂